1 killed, 4 injured in shooting at pre-BET Awards party

LOS ANGELES >> One person was killed and four were wounded when gunfire erupted at what police called an all-night “pre-BET Awards party” at a restaurant in the Los Feliz District today.

Police were dispatched at 5:17 a.m. to the Monalizza Restaurant and Banquet Hall, 1161 N. Vermont Ave., on an “assault with a deadly weapon” call, said a police officer at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Northeast station.

Los Angeles police spokesman Drake Madison said paramedics rushed three people to an area hospital, where one of them later died. The gender of the fatal shooting victim was not immediately known.

Madison said two other shooting victims went to an area hospital. Their ages and genders were not released.

The event, he said, was event he called a pre-party to Sunday’s BET Awards -- but that was not associated with the BET Awards.

“It was just a party for those who were planning to attend the BET Awards. It had nothing to do with the BET Awards,” the police spokesman said, adding that the suspect was described as a male black.

KNX radio reported that police at the scene told them one person had died there, and blood was coating sidewalks and a banquet hall two hours after the gunfire.

Katherine Main of the Los Angeles Fire Department said paramedics were dispatched at 5:18 a.m. on a reported shooting call and rushed two people to an area hospital. Their conditions were not released.

The BET Awards are at 5 p.m. tonight at the Nokia Theater at downtown’s L.A. Live, and a re scheduled to be telecast on BET.